Ashes
by priscel
Summary: One-shot An interlude of sorts. A pilot reflects and realizes more than he could have hoped for...


Hi everyone! Here's my first attempt at authorship of this kind. So let me have it! Review. Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing nor do I claim to own the g-boys (wallows in disbelief) if I did Relena wouldn't be a disgrace to obsessed girls everywhere (is not saying she is an obsessed fangirl, raspberries) and I'd be well endowed with more than just a gundam plushy!!

Ashes

It's secure. He thought to himself as he dropped his duffel on the floor and kicked it with his waning strength to the foot of his bed. He found himself pausing, gazing longingly at the empty bed closest to the door of his... correction, their room. He knew that the others would be arriving within a few hours and his roommate as well but he couldn't stop his thoughts from straying to more depressing thoughts. Thoughts that he buried with an easy smile and bright eyes. He knew it was so easy not to worry, not to think much about himself, about how much he lived up to his self-proclaimed title when the others were around. However, he couldn't help but feel that this emptiness that he felt in this new safe house resemble the hollow pit deep inside himself. Desolation, he said aloud in tone of disbelief as his thoughts shunt to the burned ruins of the first place he could call home then to the countless missions where flames licked and smoke smoldered the decimation... the destruction. To think of how many innocents died to be listed as causalities of war.

"IS this ALL my life is to be?" he queried to no one in awhisper seething in despair as tears that wouldn't fall brimmed his darken blue-violet eyes.

He pulled from inside his jacket, a seared and broken blue rabbit. He laughed to himself, it had caught his eye when he left his gundam to make sure there were no survivors at the Ozzy base. "Casualties..." he bit out, but necessary and unavoidable. The mission is... what? he thought, then shook his head and thought of Heero. A sad smile graced his features lifting the veil of depression that threaten to consume him.

"Ch!"

But he couldn't stop his growing smile and hope that maybe he could tell him how he felt and maybe just maybe he would have something more to look forward to after the war is over. A family, he thought, that's what we are. He stuffed the battered rabbit in his duffel and plopped face down on his bed. After the mattress springs ceased their rebound to his weight, he focused his gaze outside to the light that bled into the receding dark. Mornin', he heard the creak of wood and the squeak of the door and smiled. He was not alone; while he could he decided to enjoy the little family that he and the other pilots have somewhat made themselves into. There it was again. Every time he looked at the ashes of what remained of himself he'd wondered how it was that he kept going and suddenly he would find a way out of his depression to push forward. Hope, Duo smirked, the little bastard doesn't know when to give up. He chuckled quietly to himself realizing that his own determination to survive and yes... hope were his reasons for still being around to tease, taunt and regale the pilots with his endless chatter.

He heard footsteps approaching the room and turned his heard to get an eyeful of a spandex clad perfect soldier as he smiled to himself and thought that perhaps adding some bleach to Heero's laundry would uh...snickers... brighten up his day. Then he realized that Heero hadn't moved and he had been staring at Heero unabashedly. He felt a flush of warmth spread to his cheeks. He's going to think I'm crazy, no he already thinks that. He'll just think I'm more of a baka than before. He chastised himself but dared a glance at Heero and was trapped in the swirl of those cobalt eyes and the unrestrained emotion... he stared into the depths of those eyes in disbelief, yep it was emotion stirring wildly in those cobalt blues. Then, what made Duo catch his breath was th slight upturn at the corners of Heero's lips. A smile, most wouldn't have noticed but that slight movement had soften the mask of indifference that Heero had almost lead Duo to believe was a permeant fixture despite his attempts to befriend and draw out Heero from beneath it. His heart sped up and he returned the smile as his heart did flipflops when heero's smile grew as he entered the room moving toward the empty bed.

Well, damn! Duo cheered, I gotta get more of those out of him. Then he frown a bit as hope got the better of him as he began to envision a life with Heero and all sorts of ways to completely breakdown that damnable ice wall Heero had built around himself. Progress! He cheered and smiled as he snuggled into the folds of his arms, yea, hope you are evil evil thing. Thank you he mumbled in exhaustion as his lids sunk with sleep. 


End file.
